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| User | Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff Poll: How optimistic are you about your translation business in 2012? (please share!) |
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Christopher & Rozilene Frye 
Brazil
Local time: 19:31
 Member (2011)
Portuguese to English
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Interlangue wrote:
Lynn Webb wrote:
- Make sure you have a bank account in the country of your target language so that you accommodate your customers and get more work.
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Some countries will not let you open an account if you do not live there. You can only keep one you had while living there before moving out/on!
I do have an account in the country of my target language because I live there but could not open an account in the country of one specific customer - I suppose they might grant me that favour if it were a million USD customer, but it is seldom more than 10,000/year. |
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Why not use PayPal? They do the currency exchange for you.
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joeylzhao
China
Local time: 06:31
Chinese to English
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| | translation is a free work, no reason to feel negative | Feb 2 |
i think 2012 will be a good year, so, not looking forward, but working forward.
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express24trans
United States
Local time: 16:31
German to English
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I'm planning to write my own book this year and to cut down some on my crazy work load of about 10K words a day. January 2012 proved to be better than January 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 and 2007... More reasons to think things will continue that way, especially since I do mostly legal work and there's always plenty of that to go around.
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Interlangue
Belgium
Local time: 00:31
English to French
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[/quote]
Why not use PayPal? They do the currency exchange for you. [/quote]
My son uses Paypal and told me fees are even higher than intercontinental bank transfer fees, if you want to get your money on your bank account and not use it for PayPal payments ...
Some overseas clients refuse to pay any transfer costs - they wanted to send checks, which cost more to cash than the amount of the check, unless the amount exceeds 400 USD. To get one client to accept wire transfer, I take in charge all of the bank fees - and this organisation reduced the workload when I increased rates to take the USD-EUR exchange rate into account!
[Modifié le 2012-02-02 19:08 GMT]
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Evelien Snel
Netherlands
Local time: 00:31
Member (2010)
English to Dutch
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I am optimistic, my business is still growing.
I did lose the bidding for a large project already this year, but let's face it: Below a certain rate I would be wasting my time! So if somebody is stupid enough to lower his/her rates below that level, good luck to him/her!
I lost a bidding for another client in the past too... But a year later, guess who was on my doorstep? Yes, the same client, who had had a bad experience with my "cheaper" competitor.
Keep your confidence ladies and gentlemen! You are professionals and deserve an honest income. Rates are only slipping if we allow that to happen.
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MARIA GUSTAFSON
United States
Local time: 17:31
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
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2011 was a very good year. 2012 seems to be kind of static so far. Clients' budgets are very tight, they want to pay very low rates due to the economy...I sincerely don't know what's going to happen.
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Alta Verba
Belgium
Local time: 00:31
Member (2011)
English to Dutch
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| | very optimistic indeed | Feb 3 |
I am very optimistic indeed.
After 15 years of working "on the other side" (as project manager), I started as an independent translator and language consultant last year and apart from September all months have been extremely busy.
I expected January of this year to be slow but it was one of the busiest months ever and February also looks very promising.
In the meantime I am also writing my third book in as many years to be published by a large publishing company in the Benelux.
My opinion is that if you never give in on quality and don't start working for peanuts, respect deadlines, answer clients readily, and have the required means and talent to deliver excellent work, many things need to happen before you fall out of work (notwithstanding the odd silent period).
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Sabrina Ciserchia
Argentina
Local time: 19:31
English to Spanish
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| | Beware of that little old trick | Feb 8 |
MARIA GUSTAFSON wrote:
Clients' budgets are very tight, they want to pay very low rates due to the economy...I sincerely don't know what's going to happen. |
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However, if you take a look at the financial reports for most large LSP's they are making much more money now and growing on a large scale.
If they pay low rates it's because someone is accepting them... do not believe that silly excuse, we all know it's not true and they just use it to pay peanuts.
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Michael Boone
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:31
 Member
Spanish to English
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Have always found the volume of work to vary enormously, but the overall annual turnover remains fairly stable, in my own experience. I think that's why I do it -because it is unpredictable and therefore exciting
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Joss Heywood
Argentina
Local time: 19:31
Spanish to English
| | Human translation with Wordfast | Feb 22 |
P. PARTEN wrote:
...those translators with SDL Trados or Wordfast or any computerized translator get all the jobs. On the one hand, I understand... people want to hire those who have the latest in technology. On the other hand, I believe that only a human can do this kind of work. |
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I am a human and I work with Wordfast, because it helps me to have consistent translations of key terms, particularly in areas where I get a job every few months and don't necessarily remember the precise terms I had to research for the last time. Wordfast and Trados do not in any way take away the human touch - it's up to you. Check it out - it may well solve your problem for you.
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